We all know the idiom about book-smarts versus street-smarts, and it holds just as true (if not more-so) for woodworking as any other pursuit.

You can read and read about a topic, watch all the videos, follow the forums and talk with experts, but I can still guarantee the first time you pick up a chisel and try to make a square object round on a lathe, you’ll discover in practice what a kickback (or chisel dig-in) is ALL about!

You can learn as much as you can from all other avenues (and that is a good thing), but the real learning curve comes from biting the bullet and trying it out for yourself. However, jumping in the deep end without RTFM is fraught as well. Tried that yesterday, and the result was, well, a learning curve. No real harm – bit of time was wasted, and some scraps of timber, so that could be considered well worth the price. As another saying goes (stolen from its association with fishing): “a bad day woodworking still beats a good day at work” (Of course you’d want to add a small suffix to that “so long as you finish with as many body parts as you started with!”)

Tried out the MLIS (multiple layer inlay stencils) from Tarter Woodworking, and while I didn’t finish with a result, the templates proved how well they would work once I refined my processes. Trying to do it the first time and on camera just makes it that much more difficult! I also started with a pattern that was perhaps a little more complicated than I should have, so the second round will be with a simpler form.

So the majority of the video footage is destined for the editing floor. You can see a bit of timelapse footage that is left over.

It was a good test run of the multi-camera setup, and particularly the new audio recording arrangements. Running a couple of high-end mics (NTG-3 and NT5 Rode mics) through a Beachtek DXA-HDV gave some great results.